Fidelity! - Fairly Good, Based on 2 Critics

AllMusic - 70Based on rating 7/10

70

Through thick and thin, Chrissie Hynde never once stepped outside of the Pretenders, which makes her union with JP & the Fairground Boys significant. Teaming with twentysomething Welsh singer/songwrter JP Jones -- rumor has it the relationship was more than professional, a whisper supported by Hynde singing “I’ve found the perfect lover but he’s half my age” on the album opener -- and his band of shaggy Libertines disciples, Hynde loosens herself up considerably. Over years of touring, the Pretenders wound up as a precision-tuned machine, so it’s a welcome change to hear Hynde with a band lacking such finely honed chops.

You can’t fake emotion like this, and this odd couple has it in spades. Chris Roberts 2010 Chrissie Hynde has been candid in her lyrics before, as the Pretenders oeuvre testifies. Yet this – just when an artist of her years and achievements is supposed to slump into cosy, risk-free predictability – is extraordinary. Fidelity! – a collaboration with 31-year-old Welsh singer JP Jones and friends – is an autobiographical love story of uncommon self-exposure.